DISQUS launches “Discovery box” to help your readers find new content and conversations

Commenting system DISQUS has been working on its “2012” version for some time now, and has announced a new feature called Discovery box which is now available to those who are testing out the new version.

The Discovery box aims to help readers find other interesting content and conversations on your site, by popping it up in a nice juicy visual box. Here’s what DISQUS had to say about the feature today:

The Discovery box is a major extension of our promise to make discovery a natural part of how people use Disqus on sites all over the web. To us, discovery is not any one feature — it’s a benefit that is woven throughout the new Disqus experience.

The premise of the Discovery box is beautifully simple: at the bottom of the discussion thread, Disqus will help people discover other interesting stories and chatter that are happening on your site. We’re basing these recommendations on a couple things:

– The current story and discussion that’s on the page.
– What we think would be most interesting to the reader.

By adding intelligent features like this, the service hopes to get publishes to install its system for both commenting and for content discovery. It’s not a bad idea, and it looks like it could be a hit. Since DISQUS allows publishers to manage the look and feel of their comment system, the experience becomes quite integrated.